Almost Grabbed It
by thelandofthenutty
Summary: She almost grabbed it once, but ran her hand through his red hair instead, his head in her lap. He stammered it out once, in a whisper, but she was already asleep. The second week other people glanced at it too. R/H drabbles with a touch of everyone else.


A/N: Inspired by this treat of a fic fanfiction .net/s/6629252/1/Of_Scarlet_and_Gold and , I have decided to get a drabble fic all of my own. Not all are related, though I like to hope they don't contradict each other.

* * *

><p>They walked around it for two weeks.<p>

The first week they glanced at it, a few times, after bracing hugs or sleepy conversations.

They circled it, consciously, after all three funerals.

She almost grabbed it once, but ran her hand through his red hair instead, his head in her lap.

He stammered it out once, in a whisper, but she was already asleep.

The second week other people glanced at it too.

Harry 'er'd at it with an awkward cringe of his brow.

Ginny laughed at it, and shook her head.

Molly gave it a nod when she came to his room and placed folded laundry on the foot of her youngest son's bed, leaving the door a fraction open before descending the stairs.

They stop avoiding it at the same time, by the lake in the backyard, with a day until he leaves for auror training and she goes back to school.

"We should-"

"I feel like-"

There's nothing left to say. They laugh, instead.

* * *

><p>The kettle whistles, and they are still silent.<p>

His hair is still wet.

Her mouth is still frowning.

Harry is still avoiding her eyes and giving Ron bracing smiles.

He still can't stop seeing them snogging.

She still can't work out was he has to look worried about.

Harry pours the tea.

She sips once, puts the cup down and goes to bed.

He holds onto his and doesn't raise it to his lips.

Harry drinks it all, and takes the first watch.

Ron laughs.

She scolds.

Sorry. Nothing was funny.

Then why did you laugh?

Harry laughs too.

Nothing is funny.

"Watch...watch without the fucking locket...it's going to be so...so-"

The boys are laughing.

Hermione is crying, but she is laughing louder than she is crying so it's ok.

Harry takes the watch. Without the locket.

Ron steps towards her bed.

She rolls towards the canvas wall and closes her eyes.

She's crying louder than she's laughing.

He's on the edge of her cot.

She's facing the wall.

Harry's keeping watch, and thinking about how beautiful snow is.

* * *

><p>Her eyes are wide today. She dog-ears pages on books and sets them down with a satisfied thump. She collects mushrooms. She boils water. She makes a map of England that disappears when anyone else looks at it. She plots where they've been. She writes in a small green book. She smiles when either of them speaks. She walks away when it's her third of the day to wear the locket, and skips rocks, alone, thinking of her parents, thinking of Ron, and not getting mad at anyone. Self imposed isolation. She knows what the locket does.<p>

She takes her watch first, then takes the locket off.

Ron takes his second, then goes to bed.

Harry takes his third, and forgets to take it off Ron. Forgets?

Ron doesn't remind him. He thinks of the pain in his shoulder and the girl sleeping on the top bunk and the boy who got everything he ever wanted sitting locketless out the front of the tent and he turns the radio on and lets it crackle into her sleep.

Her eyes are wide tonight.

She swings her legs down off the bed and they land on the rug with a satisfied thump. She turns off the radio. She ignores his protests. She sits on the edge of his cot and stares at his face.

He frowns.

"Don't Hermione. Don't defend him."

She doesn't know what Ron's talking about but she knows why he's talking about it. She sits on top of his blanket, her legs stretched along his bed. She runs one hand through his red hair. She lies down next to him. She watches his mouth open.

She takes the chain from around his neck.

She watches his mouth close. His brow unfurrow.

He watches her smile.

"Goodnight Ron."

She places the locket just above their heads on his pillow. She closes her eyes.

She wakes up under the blanket, unsure of how she got there.

The locket is gone.

"Nice of you both to wake up. Some of us are actually looking for Horcruxes."

One evening there wasn't a Daily Prophet on the table, and the wireless was turned off.

* * *

><p>"What did they do Arthur?"<p>

"What did who do?"

His voice was tired, and his hand held his forehead together, the other resting on the table.

"You know who..."

"Killed a muggle family in Sussex? Set two more giants loose in Maine..."

"Not You-Know-Who! You...You know who I'm talking about! Harry! Hermione!"

He spared her the break in her trembling voice that would have eventuated had she said her own son's name.

"I don't know that they did anything specifically Molly. It's just a Ministry rumour..."

"What did they do?"

"I saw no sign that they were anywhere near the Ministry."

"Anywhere near the WHAT?"

"And I'm sure that if they were really there they would have gotten a message to..."

Arthur trailed off. He pulled a Daily Prophet from his briefcase. He unfurled it. He smiled. Molly gasped.

"They broke into the Ministry."

"So now you're saying they _did _do something!"

"Runcorn's never seen it in his interest to warn me about anything before."


End file.
